Bendigo Health has defended its procedures after a resident at the Joan Pinder Nursing Home was given the wrong medication on three separate occasions since May last year.
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Tahnee Grattan said she only found out her 65-year-old father Kevin Grattan, who suffers from a heart condition, had been given the wrong medication for the third time when he told her he had become unwell as a result.
“I spoke to my dad last week, I just rang him to see how he’s going and he said that they had given him the wrong medication,” she said.
“I think it was diabetes medication which he’s not really on at the moment so it dropped his sugar down to pretty low levels which made him pretty sick.
“They didn't ring me and let me know that this had happened and so I rang the Joan Pinder facility and spoke to one of the nurses … and I said ‘well if dad had got really ill I wouldn’t have known that this was why he was ill’.
“It just really upset me because it was the third time, and not informing me or anything.”
Bendigo Health, which manages the facility, said in a statement they had since had “successful discussions” with Ms Grattan and her father.
But Ms Grattan disagreed, saying despite the fact she did not hold medical enduring power of attorney over her father she was told it was still hospital policy to inform her of the mistakes as next of kin, as had occurred on the previous occasion.
“They didn't really want to discuss much at all, nothing really until I contacted them,” she said.
“They told me they should have, that was their protocol and that wasn't followed.”
The Bendigo Health spokesman said the hospital took all such incidents very seriously and had clear procedures and policies in place when medication errors occurred.
“This involves immediate contact with the resident’s GP, or if unavailable, a senior clinician in our Residential In Reach program who can provide specialist assessment, co-ordination, care provision and treatment for residents within aged care facilities,” he said.
“Bendigo Health has a culture of continuous improvement, and reducing medication errors is an area of focus for us.
“As per protocol, incidents are investigated by senior management and then reviewed by Bendigo Health’s Medication Safety Committee.”